Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Steve LeHuray wrote: > Yes it is true that with the dumbing > down of our > culture film will eventually fade away but not in my lifetime. Film will exist as long as a market for film exists. The digital dumbing down of society exists because digital is often more convenient than analog. This has nothing to do with quality. Analog is often better, and at truly high resolutions digital becomes analog. Take the compact disc and vinyl record as an example. We now pay more for lower quality CD (despite the so-called higher signal-noise ratio), all in the name of higher profit for the distributer. Society accepts this because CDs are more convenient than LPs and because most people don't take the time to notice the difference in quality. Myself included ... on the convenience part, if I truly cared about sound quality I would maintain my LP collection. We be thankful for the one-hour photo lab which will keep the convenience level of film high enough to counteract the digital camera. We should thank the entire computer industry for keeping the convenience level of the computer low enough to keep digital imaging possible but not convenient for the masses. This will likely change at some point. Does anyone have a rough idea of how many grains of silver there are in a typical modern 100 ASA 35mm B&W negative? Or alternatively given the MTF of such a negative, optimally developed, how many CCD pixels would be needed to achieve a similar MTF? Jonathan Borden